320 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATLD^. Genus ANSER. 



Subfamily ANSERINE. 



PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 



ANSEE BKACHYEHYNCHUS Baillon. 



Anser brachyrhynchus, Baillon, M6m. de la Soc. roy. d'6m. d'Abbev. 1833. p. 74; 

 Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 602 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 369, pi. 413 (1878) ; 

 Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 270 (1885) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 498 (1885) ; 

 Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xxv. (1893) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. 

 Brit. B. p. 150 (1894); Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 103 (1895) ; Seebohm, 

 Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 31, pi. 10 (1896) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 234 

 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British : The Pink-footed Goose is a 

 common winter visitor, found most abundantly on the east coast of England and 

 Scotland, more sparingly on the west coast of Scotland, and locally in the Outer 

 Hebrides, and on the south coast of England. Singularly enough this species 

 has but once been obtained in Ireland, nor has it been observed in the Shetland 

 Islands. Foreign : Extreme north-western Palaearctic region ; accidental in the 

 Oriental region during winter. The only known breeding places of this very 

 doubtfully distinct species are on the islands of Spitzbergen, probably on Iceland, 

 and possibly on Nova Zembla and Franz-Josef Land. It is found on the coasts 

 of Scandinavia, Denmark, and Holland during the autumn and spring migrations, 

 and during winter has been observed on the coasts of Belgium and France. So 

 far as is known, the British Islands are the grand headquarters of this Goose 

 during winter. It has been obtained in Northern India. Among other occur- 

 rences may be mentioned a pair shot in the Jumna by Hume during January, 

 1864. 



Allied forms. Anser segetum, probably the parent form, a British species, 

 and treated fully in the preceding chapter. Whether the Anser neglectus, recently 

 described by Sushkin from the government of Ufa, be distinct from the Pink- 

 footed Goose and the Bean Goose we are not as yet prepared to admit. It is 

 said to be larger than, and to differ somewhat in colour from, the former. (Couf. 

 Ibis 1897, pp. 58. 



Habits. The habits of the Pink-footed Goose are not know to differ in any 

 very important particular from those of the closely allied Bean Goose ; indeed, 



